Poll: Fewer People Think Race Relations Have Improved Under Obama

According to new USA Today/Gallup Poll results released today, 35 percent of Americans surveyed believe that race relations under President Obama have improved. While it’s nice to see the hope in those results, the findings are actually down from a similar survey taken in 2009, which had 41 percent of Americans saying race relations had been better than in the past. A decline in the number of people that think we’re all mixing and mingling well is not a good look, especially since 23 percent (not TOO far off from that 35 percent) of Americans polled at the beginning of this month actually feel race relations have gotten worse.

With Martin Luther King Jr.’s memorial being dedicated on the 28 of this month, it’s pretty disappointing to hear that more and more people aren’t seeing or feeling an improvement in the way we coexist based on our color. According to Gallup, it was predicted the day after President Obama’s election by a whopping 70 percent of people that race relations would get better. But with folks in the public eye calling President Obama “boy” and using the word “hizzouse” to describe the White House based on the guests he invites (which is his damn business), it’s clear that tact and race relations aren’t really on the up and up. But there’s good news! An optimistic 52 percent of Americans believe that President Obama’s election will help to improve race relations in the future. Well, we’ll wait and see about that…

Do you think race relations have gotten better, worse or stayed the same?